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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Welcome to my stop on the Review
Tour, presented by Goddess Fish
Promotions, for Like I Used to Danceby
Barbara Frances. Please leave a comment or question for Barbara
to let her know you stopped by. You may
enter her tour wide giveaway, where one (1) randomly chosen commenter will be
awarded a $25 Amazon/BN GC, by filling out the Rafflecopter form below. You may follow all of the stops on the tour
by clicking on the banner above, the more stops you visit, the better your
chances of winning. Good Luck!

“Oh,
Grace, our kids,” laughed Bud. “Where did we go wrong? One marries God, another
a Jew and the last one, the devil!”

Texas, 1951. The
Wolanskis—Grace, Bud and their three grown children—are a close-knit clan,
deeply rooted in their rural community and traditional faith. On their orderly
farm, life seems good and tomorrow always holds promise.

But under the surface, it’s a
different story. Grace is beset by dark memories and nameless fears that she
keeps secret even from Bud. Their son Andy has said no to becoming a farmer
like his dad and, worse, fallen in love with a big-city Jewish girl. Youngest
child Regina is trapped in a loveless marriage to an abusive, alcoholic
husband. Even “perfect” daughter Angela’s decision to become a nun takes an
unforeseen turn.

And then Ceil Dollard breezes
into town.

Ceil—wealthy, sophisticated,
irrepressible—is like a visitor from Mars. She’s a modern woman. She drives a
car and wears pants. She blows away tradition and certainty, forcing Grace to
face her fears and brave a changing world. Through Ceil, Grace learns about
courage and freedom—but at the risk of losing Bud.

Barbara Frances’ sparkling,
richly human novel takes you back to a time when Ike was president and life was
slower, but people were the same as now. You’ll encounter a cast of characters
storm-tossed by change, held together by love. Written with compassion, humor
and suspense, Like I Used to Dance will charm you, warm you and even squeeze a
few tears, from its opening number to the last waltz.

EXCERPT

Ceil
had brought over a bottle of wine and some fancy cheeses. Grace felt like a
celebrity. She asked Bud and Ceil to sit on the couch in the parlor. Slowly and
carefully she furled the bed sheet from the easel revealing the newly dried
canvas. It was a painting she had copied from an old black and white photo of
the children.

Nine-year-old
Andy stood on the creek bank with his little fishing pole while ten- year-old
Angela held a wriggly worm for him. To the side and in the background
five-year-old Regina looked on with awe at her older siblings.

There
was a long moment of silence before Bud could catch his breath. “I’ve never
felt anything like this. I’m… It touches my heart,” he said and began to
applaud. Ceil joined in. Grace couldn’t remember such joy flooding over her,
not even when her children were born. The wine was opened and for the first
time in her life Grace got tipsy over the course of the evening. Sitting
between Bud and Ceil, she hugged one and then the other like a child who had
been away from its mom and dad for several days.

“Ceil,
I know I promised you my first painting,” she said, slurring her words, “but
this one’s for Bud. I hope you don’t mind.” Bud kissed her on the cheek. He
felt like a prince.

Ceil
paused with a serious expression on her face. “Well, I guess I’ll have to take
back all the brushes, canvases and stuff I got you.” Laughter sailed through
the open windows.

A
few days later, Regina dropped by and stood for a long time silently taking in
Grace’s painting. Grace marveled at how pretty she was these days. She was
regaining her health and an interest in her appearance. Finally, Regina said
softly, “You paint like I used to dance.”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Barbara Frances has plenty of
stories and a life spent acquiring them. Growing up Catholic on a small Texas
farm, her childhood ambition was to become a nun. In ninth grade she entered a
boarding school in Our Lady of the Lake Convent as an aspirant, the first of
several steps before taking vows. The Sisters were disappointed, however, when
she passed up the habit for the University of North Texas, where she graduated with
a bachelor’s degree in English and Theater Arts.

Her professors were similarly
disappointed when she passed up a postgraduate degree to become a stewardess
for American Airlines. Barbara, however, never looked back. “In the Sixties, a
stewardess was a glamorous occupation.” Some highlights include an evening on
the town with Chuck Berry and “opening the bar” for a planeload of young
privates on their way to Vietnam.

Barbara eventually returned
to Texas and settled down. Marriage, children, school teaching and divorce
distracted her from storytelling, but one summer she and a friend coauthored a
screenplay. “I never had such fun! I come from a family of storytellers.
Relatives would come over and after dinner everyone would tell tales. Sometimes
they were even true.”

The next summer Barbara wrote
a screenplay on her own. Others followed, including Two Women, a finalist in
the 1990 Austin Screenwriters Festival. Three more were optioned: Silent
Crossing, The Anniversary and Sojourner Truth. Barbara left teaching and
continued to work on her screenplays. In 1992, exhausted by endless rewrites
she did something many screenwriters threaten but few carry out. She turned
down an option renewal, done forever with writing—or so she thought.

It was not to be. One day a
friend’s child found and read Lottie’s Adventure, her script for a children’s
movie. At her young fan’s urging, Barbara turned it into a book, published by
Positive Imaging, LLC, her husband Bill’s press. For Like I Used to Dance
Barbara drew upon childhood memories and “front porch stories.” Her next novel,
Shadow’s Way, is a “Southern Gothic tale” about
a woman caught in the struggle to keep her beloved plantation home from
a scheming archbishop.

Barbara and her husband Bill
Benitez live in Austin, Texas. She can be reached at:

A
cross between women’s fiction, family drama and coming of age story, Like I
Used to Dance by Barbara Frances was much more than I expected. Filled with colorful characters, lively
dialogue, emotional angst, and a culture undergoing a rapid change, this well
paced story grabbed my attention from the start and never let go. If you enjoy reading books filled with close
knit families, generational differences and an honest look at society, then
this is a book you will certainly enjoy.

Ms.
Frances does a good job developing the characters right from the start; I
really enjoyed getting to know Grace and her family. I was able to connect with Grace and her
youngest daughter, Regina, right away and couldn’t wait to get their full
story. Written in first person, from
several character points of view, Ms. Frances gives us a picture of what life
would have been like in rural Texas in the 1950’s if you were a member of the
working class. A picture I’m sure is more
realistic than what I’ve seen in several movies covering that time period and
location.

The
secondary characters were also well developed and I enjoyed getting to know all
of Grace and Bud’s family, as well as their closest neighbors (an African
American couple who they like much better than their son in law). The people in town are what you would expect
in a small town with racial issues but there is one female character who seems
to travel between both groups, with interesting results, due to her “spiritual”
talents. And of course when Ceil
Dollard, a very modern “city” woman comes into town with new ideas, it’s
interesting to watch the results.

Tackling
several hot social issues; alcoholism, rape, racism, pre-marital sex, birth
control, and even murder, Ms. Frances paints a picture of society that we can
all identify with. Especially since we
are still dealing with these issues over 50 years from the books setting. Giving us no blanket answer, each of the
characters must make an emotional journey as they decide what answer works best
for them.

Will
Grace and Regina deal with the emotional issues keeping them burdened with the
past? Will Grace embrace a more modern
outlook and loose her family in the process?
You’ll have to read Like I Used to Dance to find out. I really enjoyed it and look forward to
reading more of Ms. Frances’ work.

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